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Editorial:
How
to
Launch
a
Nationwide
Drug
Menace
3/18/05
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/379/launch.shtml
David Borden, Executive
Director, [email protected]
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 |
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David
Borden
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It was the talk of the airwaves
today: Congress held hearings on steroid use in professional baseball,
with sports stars like Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa subpoenaed to be there.
Is steroid use wrong? Can baseball police itself? Are congressmen
seeking the public good or just grandstanding? Should the issue lie
within Congress' purview at all? Numerous participants in the public
debate have opined on the issue, and it will no doubt continue to be talked
about for months or more likely years to come.
The most emotion-laden argument
heard is that of the superstar athlete as role model for the nation's youth.
One of the witnesses at the hearing was a grieving father whose son committed
suicide, it is believed as a result of withdrawal from anabolic steroid
use. If kids get the idea that steroids can make them excel at sports,
maybe even make the major leagues, more kids will use them and more such
tragedies will be the result, is the idea. There may or may not be
a lot of truth to the notion -- it is notably difficult to sort fact from
fiction on matters involving drugs and especially drugs and kids.
But let's assume for the sake of argument that there is at least some truth
to it. There probably is at least a little.
All the more reason Congress
was wrong to do what it did this week. If there were any young people
in American who didn't know that steroids can enhance one's athleticism,
they almost certainly know it now. Along with thinking about the
policy and social issues, some young people are now thinking, more than
they were before, about whether or not to take steroids. It is an
inevitable chain of events whenever politicians or the media draw attention
to a drug. Though I do not know whether steroid use will increase
as a result of the hearings, I would not be surprised by that. Whereas
I would be surprised if the hearings directly or indirectly caused steroid
use to drop. That's just not the way these things tend to work out.
Anyone interested in this
issue should read "How
To Launch a Nationwide Drug Menace," chapter 44 of the 1972 classic,
"The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs." The chapter
traces the evolution of glue sniffing from an obscure habit in 1959 to
a major national phenomenon by the early 1960s. Anyone hurt or concerned
by the harms wrought by drugs on some of their users ought to be disheartened
by that story's similarities to today's steroid brouhaha. Will publicity
from Congress' unintended advertising of steroid use serve to drive use
up?
Time will tell, but if history
is any guide, the answer is probably yes. And I for one was not interested
in yet another demonstration of what not to do. Unfortunately, history
likes to repeat itself. One more nationwide drug menace in the making.
-- END --
|
Issue #379
-- 3/18/05
Editorial:
How
to
Launch
a
Nationwide
Drug
Menace
|
Alaska
Measure
to
Recriminalize
Marijuana
Headed
for
Hearings
Next
Week
|
The
UN
Vienna
Meeting:
Glass
Half
Empty
or
Glass
Half
Full?
|
Marijuana
Regulation
Efforts
Moving
Forward
in
Nevada
and
Vermont
|
Marijuana
Law
Enforcement
Costs
More
than
$7
Billion
a
Year
--
and
Doesn't
Work,
Says
New
Report
|
Coasters
to
Stop
the
Drug
War
|
Events
and
Conferences
Coming
Up
for
Drug
Reformers
--
Come
Out
and
Be
a
Part
of
It
|
Newsbrief:
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
|
Newsbrief:
US
Drug
War
Hurts
Women,
Says
New
Report
|
Newsbrief:
Welfare
Bill
Amended
to
Cut
Funding
to
States
That
Fail
to
Drug
Test
Welfare
Recipients,
But
None
Currently
Do
|
Newsbrief:
Police
in
Missouri
Town
Seek
to
Overturn
Marijuana
Reform
Ordinance
|
Newsbrief:
Heroin
Maintenance
Study
Now
Underway
in
Vancouver
|
Newsbrief:
Vancouver
Sun
Says
Legalize
It
|
Newsbrief:
UN
Predicts
Cocaine
Price
Increase,
Cites
Colombia
"Success"
|
Newsbrief:
European
Drug
Think-Tank
Calls
for
Legalizing
Afghan
Opium
Crop
--
Afghan
Government
Reaction
Mixed
|
Newsbrief:
Crackdown
in
Sao
Paulo's
"Crackland"
Stirs
Criticism
|
Media
Scan:
Tony
Papa
on
Artists
Against
the
Drug
War
for
Alternet,
Slate
on
the
WTO
and
Marijuana
Laws,
Vancouver
Sun
on
Marijuana
Legalization,
UK
Overdosing
on
Opiates
Article
|
This
Week
in
History
|
MAPS
Benefit
Auction
|
The
Reformer's
Calendar
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
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